<Thread> Let us talk about the two top senior officer “jobbers” of the Greek Army 1919-1922. By “jobber” I mean an officer who is considered useful for some tasks, but not considered material for field command.
@mesutuyar10 @FuatSerdarAydin @Velisarios21 @ArcGreek

Of the officers of the Greek Army in 1919-1922 in Asia Minor, two have a pattern of appointments that indicates a potential “jobber” status. These are Panagiotes Gargalides and Georgios Leonardopoulos.

These two share the distinction of having passed from the most divisional commands in the Greek Army in Asia Minor during 1919-1922. Both served under both the Venizelos and the Gounaris regimes.

Gargalides served twice as commander of II Division, then commander of Cydoniae Division, than of XI Division, and then of V Division.
Leonardopoulos served sequentially as Commander of II Division, X Division, IX Division and the Independent Division.

What is interesting are both the number of rotations (the highest among divisional commanders) and the duration of their commands. These were relatively brief

Gargalides command of II Division was about 40-45 days each time. His command of Cydoniae Division about a month. His longest command, was of XI division for about 140 days. His command of V Division lasted about two months.

Leonardopoulos commanded II Division for about two months, X Division for about 130 days, IX for just fifteen days, and the Independent Division for about two months.

The circumstances of their replacement are also interesting. In general, they were replaced when the divisions they commanded were about to participated in major operations.

This was always the case with Gargalides, since his longest command, of XI Division, ended when that division was ordered to participate in the June-August 1921 operations.

The same holds for Leonardopoulos, with one exception. Unlike Gargalides, he was given the chance to show whether he had what it takes for divisional command in major operations.

He was given the X Division during the Battle of 2nd Inonu. The collapse of that division, cost the Greeks the battle, and ended his career as a battlefield commander.

What comes out of the above is that Gargalides primarily, and Leonardopoulos to a lesser degree, were seen as officers that could direct the formation and training of a division, but were not to be trusted with battlefield command.

They were thus “jobbers” used for a specific task, but not trusted with the main events of the war.
This condition of course was something bitterly resented by two officers with long military careers, and who had served in the army both under the Venizelist and Gunaris regimes.

Like Trikupis, and most Greek officers 1919-1922, they were above all careerists, but unlike Trikoupis they saw their careers languish.

The fact that they had passed through so many divisional commands, and thought that this gave them a strong enough network in the army, and their bitterness about army politics, especially of Pangalos,

is what led to them to lend their support to Metaxas and the royalist Ziras and lunch the coup attempt of 1923 that forever is known as the Leonardopoulos-Gargalides Coup Attempt.

Interesting final point. You can see the uniform of Gargalides at the HISART Museum @HisartMuseum in Istanbul/Constantinople.